The battle between Ripple and Swift has been ongoing for quite some time now. The two opponents target the same market, cross-border remittances, and are thus naturally opposed. At a recent conference, the CEOs of the two firms had the chance to make their case, and Brad Garlinghouse came out swinging. The Ripple CEO referred to Swift as a messaging platform which better systems are gradually replacing. He expressed his belief that the future belongs to decentralized systems.

Ripple’s XRP made major gains, with many analysts attributing it to the Paris Fintech Forum event. During the event, there was a hint that despite their heated animosity, the two firms might work together in the future. The price gained 15 percent to reverse what has been a downward trend since January 10.

XRP rose from $0.28 to trade at $0.332, a 15.5 percent rise in just a few hours. Upbit, Binance and ZBG exchanges led the momentum, together accounting for 25 percent of the trade volume. XRP couldn’t hold on to the momentum, however, and has since lost some of the gains. A press time, the currency was trading at $0.36. It’s still 6 percent higher than it was yesterday and the highest in the past three days.

Garlinghouse blasted Swift for its centralized model in which one entity controls a multi-trillion dollar channel. While there has been much talk about Swift’s GPI network, it’s still centrally controlled. GPI is Swift’s response to the rise of decentralized systems like Ripple that target its market segment. However, as Garlinghouse pointed out, it’s still under Swift’s control and the Brussel-based institution has ultimate control.

The Future Is Decentralized

The future is decentralized, Garlinghouse and the Swift CEO, Gottfried Leibbrandt, concurred. The consumers’ desire to free themselves of centralized control is becoming stronger with time. This is leading the consumers to decentralized systems which also tend to be cheaper, faster and more secure.

Garlinghouse further reiterated Ripple’s commitment to becoming the ultimate ‘Internet of Value’ system. He stated:

Swift today is a one-way messaging framework, it isn’t a liquidity provider. When we think about an internet of value, it’s a mixture of two-way messaging frameworks — moving to a real-time chatting protocol if you will — coupled with real-time liquidity.

However, Swift has a plan of its own to counter the advances of Ripple. Leibbrandt announced that the institution is working on a blockchain initiative of its own. Swift has partnered with R3, Ripple’s arch-rival, in the venture which will seek to better its GPI platform.

He stated:

We are announcing later today a proof-of-concept with the R3 blockchain on trade where you can initiate a payment on the trade platform and then it goes into GPI

The initiative will see Swift tap into R3’s Corda platform which has several other large firms. These firms will be able to initiate payments via the GPI platform which is much faster than the traditional Swift platform.